On November 2^nd, the freshmen honors trip to Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia occurred. After an hour-long bus ride, we split into two groups for a tour of the penitentiary. We walked around the outside and through the cell blocks as the guide explained the history of the revolutionary – for its time period – prison system. The penitentiary was originally built in the shape of a wagon wheel so that a single guard could stand in the very center of the spokes and watch all six wings. The prisoners were all low-risk and were meant to be rehabilitated completely. They were kept isolated from each other so they would not influence each other’s recovery. This system became a model for prisons across the world. However, this idealistic system did not last for long as crowding began to take precedent over the perfect system. At the beginning of the twentieth century, they abandoned the system entirely and became just like any other prison.

           As I enjoy history, and the prison is supposedly haunted, I found the experience quite interesting. After the initial tour, we were allowed to explore the prison and visit the areas that were not a part of the tour. The people I was with stayed in the ‘haunted’ cellblock for a long time, looking for signs of ghosts. There was one especially creepy cell which was dark with a human-shaped tree growing inside. When we finally left, we went to eat and walked along the street the prison was on, going in various stores such as a nifty book store, an icecream parlor, and a pet shop. All in all, the day was very informative but also a great bonding experience for our group. I would definitely recommend attending any future honors-related trips, if not for the activity itself, then for the people you would be with.

One year ago, my ideal college was Ithaca College in upstate New York. Every fiber of my being felt a sense of belonging to their campus, their physical therapy program, their community. Their institution was perfect for me except for one key aspect: the expense. I let my heart become attached to a college that, in the end, I would only get to experience on a campus tour rather than as a student.
The thought of coming to Stockton was one that nauseated me. I had fallen in love with Ithaca College and felt married to it, I felt adulterous informing Stockton that I would be attending their campus in the fall. When I came for the Honors Overnight Experience I was ambivalent, trying to find something to love about Stockton when I felt very prejudiced against it. I looked at the agenda with a critical eye, doubting that anything would spark an interest for me. That was of course until I read the title: Whose Line is it Anyway.
Comedy has always been my guilty pleasure and improv my bread and butter. Growing up I would stay up late whenever I could so I could watch episodes of Whose Line air on ABC Family around 11 o’clock. As my taste for comedy matured I added television like Saturday Night Live and The Office to my repertoire of favorite shows. But my gateway to comedy, my gateway to funny, was Whose Line is it Anyway.
My heart opened up to Stockton as soon as I saw the program in the Campus Theater at the Honors Overnight Experience. I knew that it was a night of theater that I would never forget. More importantly it was the first thing that I could see myself becoming involved in at Stockton. I saw the show again during Welcome Week- the actors were playing to a full house. As an actor myself I know there is nothing more euphoric than the feeling of performing for a full and receptive audience.
After the show that night, the director of the program announced that Whose Line was a program open to anyone who was interested in improv comedy. I proudly fell into that category. The criteria for being a cast member on the show at that point was simply expressing interest in the program; so many people had done so however that auditions became necessary.
Sitting in the Experimental Theater lobby waiting to audition for the show, I felt oddly star struck simply talking to the members that I had seen perform just days before. In that moment I wanted nothing more than to be among their ranks for the next Whose Line production. During the audition we just played the improv games together that they use in performance. I had so much fun goofing around with them I almost forgot that I was at an audition. When the cast list was posted, I was thrilled to see that my name was second on the list, I was on Whose Line is it Anyway?! My inner child was squealing with joy, I had just accomplished a life dream.
The following Monday I got to perform in the Campus Center Theater for around sixty people. I had butterflies in my belly all day prior to the performance. I had watched episodes of the show on YouTube in between each of my classes to prepare for the night’s production. I had the best time playing different games with my theater friends and was feeling the euphoric joy of entertainment each time the audience laughed at one of my jokes. It was one of the best performances I have ever gotten to be a part of. I can’t wait until next month when I’ll have an opportunity to do it again.

On Friday November 22, the Environmental Discourse on the Ingestion of Bugs Leage (EDIBL) hosted a movie night in the Campus Center Theatre.  They played the 1950’s horror science fiction movie Them!  While attendance was low, everyone had a good time talking with each other and watching the movie.

Them! takes place in a rural town in New Mexico where the first nuclear bomb was tested.  Due to nuclear radiation, ants mutated into nearly 10-feet-long monsters.  There was not enough food for the ants in the wasteland to feed the gigantic ants, and they began to feed off of human flesh.  The Doctors Medford attempt to put an end to the ant menace, but even if they can destroy the ants, there is no telling what the other atomic bombs might have caused as the radiation infected the surrounding wildlife.

The majority of the people that came to see the movie were from EDIBL while one person was from outside the club.  The movie started at 8:30 pm and ran until 10:15 pm.  Everyone spread out in the Campus Center Theater taking advantage of the amount of empty seats.

EDIBL arranged to have snacks for the movie night, but they were unable to have them at the event.  No one seemed to mind as they were watching the movie.  It was the final event of the semester for EDIBL, and that appeared to be what mattered most to everyone.

EDIBL advertised the event over Facebook through their page Edibl at Stockton College, titling the event “Them! A B-rate Horror Movie Night.”  The movie brought about both scares and laughs and kept the audience’s attention even if it was considered “B-rate.”

I got the chance to see the Stockton Theatre Club’s performance of Hello Herman. The show focuses on the story of a boy, Herman Howards, who murders about forty people in his high school. A reporter tries to learn the reason why Herman has committed such a violent crime. As they speak through his journey more characters are revealed and parts of Herman’s past are relived. From Herman dealing with his parent’s divorce to seeing his sister die, after be hitting by a car, while he gets bullied, the reasons for his crime become slightly more clear. Herman discusses how he wants to be remembered like no one else, how there will be more of him, but once the reporter turns off the camera, everything changes. Mikey, the actor playing Herman, began to shake and speaks of how scared he is and how he wants to take it all back. It is too late for Herman however. The next day, he is executed.
This show definitely has a darker side to it than most of the shows I have seen. Friends of mine left feeling sick and completely disturbed. Their feelings were created by the remorseless acting of Mikey, along with depressed Ms. Howards, played by Taylor. The other characters in the show also added to the cringe factor that the lines already held. This show is not like most, in the sense that you watch people get murder by a teenage boy, the reporter beat a man with a bat, a mother have a hysterical break down, or an electrocution. All of these events are seen in Herman and leave you feeling just a little too close and in touch with what happenings before, during, and after a school shooting. While this closeness was disturbing I think there is a very relevant point in doing it. School shootings happen all to frequently, and while we mourn them, many are not a part of them. This show brings you deep within what it is like to be tangled with characters like Howard, his mother, and the reporter. Disturbing, as it is this play shows you the true horror of death and destruction.

Stocktonopoly happened the first weekend of October. On Friday the 4^th there was a parade and pep rally to show appreciation for clubs and sports. I am a member of our Track and Field team and our coach wanted all future and former members to meet up and join the parade for some team bonding and to show everyone how wonderful our team was. We met outside of Big Blue or The Sports Center, all wearing a track shirt with other teams that were meeting. We were all led to the gym where every club was preparing or gathering around their float and there were a lot of floats. The whole gym was colorful and full of people. It made me realize that Stockton really does have a lot of clubs and organizations, and they clearly put a lot of effort into their monopoly themed floats.

I stayed with the track team the whole time. In the gym we were all talking and laughing with each other and waited for the parade to start. We took a nice team picture and then were on our way. As we were walking out, my friend and fellow pole vaulter asked me if I could pull up “The Fox” by Ylvis to show his friend. Since I thought the song was hilarious, I gladly pulled up the song and we all had a good laugh about it. Who doesn’t love that song right now?

We walked from the back of Big Blue to the Campus Center for more pictures and some spectators. It was nice seeing support from people around the campus for this event. We paraded along in between other floats and banners. Everyone seemed in high spirits and happy to be there, which was wonderful. The day was hot but that didn’t seem to bother anyone. We paraded towards the freshman dorms where people were starting to come outside and waving from their windows. We walked from Housing 3 to Housing 2 where the parade dispersed and gathered for the pep rally.

The pep rally was on the side of the TRLC and there was a little stage. My friend and I sat down on the ground to watch the events of the pep rally. There were performances by different clubs which were pretty impressive. Cheerleaders, dancers, and singers were all pepped up and bravely performing in front of all the students that were gathered. Each group earned cheers from all the students. There were speakers from different people around the campus, and each sport team got individual recognition. They all were together with their team and cheered when their accomplishments were announced. Homecoming King and Queen were announced and each gave a short speech. When the pep rally ended, almost everyone lined up to get a free t-shirt. Everyone loves free t-shirts.

The pep rally and parade definitely raised spirits that day. I know I walked away in a great mood from seeing how close, talented, and determined these clubs and organizations were.

This has been the most exciting, terrifying, thrilling week I have ever lived through. I had never thought I would ever get the chance to play in a live action video game until I came to Stockton and heard of the human verses zombies. To think such an unofficial, farfetched, event could be so popular and active is hard to believe but personally I can’t wait to play again. This year there were a total of 211 students and alumni participating; one of the largest turn outs yet. The game starts with only one zombie and as the week goes on more and more people get infected; the number of zombies increase and the human population begins to fear for their lives. Every night there are missions that pit humans against all odds and force them to step out of their comfort zone to meet new people, form alliances, and protect your fellow humans.
The game goes on throughout the week, day and night. So classes or not, as long it’s out doors, humans are free to shoot and zombies are free to chase. Missions are scary but for humans, even walking to class is filled with anxiety. Nothing is cooler than seeing a gang of ‘humans’ walking around campus fully equipped with loaded nerf guns, bullet belts, and sock grenades. The one thing that might be cooler is being able to be a part of that gang and to see the faces of confused pedestrians. Sure there are always those few who cheat and are sore losers but overall I must argue that this game brings people closer and is extremely fun. For me the game encouraged me to stay indoors as much as possible so besides classes, being indoors gives a person a lot of study time. The neon green band do attract a lot of attention so hopefully by the end of this week everyone on campus will know about HVZ and join next semester.

One event that I have been waiting for since the summer was the Get Involved Fair. I was on a mission to try out as many clubs as possible because I really wanted to be as involved as possible. Since I am an incoming college student I’ve heard many people talk about the importance of getting involved and how it makes the college experience. A week before the fair one of my friends had a pamphlet about the different clubs which especially got me interested. I looked at the list and found that Stockton has a lot of clubs to offer, and just by looking at the names of the clubs I knew I was interested in at least twenty.

The morning of the fair I wasn’t sure when I would be able to walk around and see all the clubs I wanted. I had a class in the morning, then I had to do my daily track workout, and I had an evening class. I wasn’t going to attend class due to having a meeting for track, so I still did not have much free time that day. I thought I would have to go after the meeting but that really wouldn’t have left much time to visit all the clubs if they were even still there. Some did pack up throughout the day. Thankfully my roommate wanted to go, and I got my workout done early so I got to go in the middle of the day, so we went on to adventure at The Get Involved Fair!

My roommate and I started from the very beginning. Every table had nice decorations to relate to their club and many of the tables had free stuff. Some of the people sitting at the tables did not seem interested at being there at all, while others smiled and waved and would call me over if they heard me ask a question about their club. It was nice, no matter what table I walked to I was greeted with a smile even if the person was just sitting in boredom a few seconds ago. All the tables I approached were very good at explaining their club and I ended up signing up for a lot more clubs than I planned to.

We made our way through the fair and began looking at the same clubs. We walked through for 10 minutes and couldn’t really find all the clubs we were looking for at first so we stuck together just talking and walking. As we got to the main part of the fair I started seeing more and more clubs I was interested in. It got to the point where my roommate walked on without me since I was stopping at almost every table. I was really excited to get to the EDIBL club since I remembered it being about bugs. When I got to the table I learned that it wasn’t a club about just bugs, it was a club about eating bugs. At that moment I also realized how clever the name was. EDIBL. I felt silly but I was super excited to learn about eating bugs.

I continued to make my way around the giant circle of clubs. I was finding most of the clubs I was interested in but I was really looking for the Geology and Art Club, they were nowhere in sight though. As I was talking to all these people about their clubs I realized that I couldn’t make a lot of the meetings. So many clubs had meetings around the same time and same day. That was kind of disappointing, especially since I had evening classes on Tuesday and Thursday. Still I was determined to try and be a part of all these clubs. I finally started to make my way down to the end of the fair where I finally found the Art Club. I was impressed with their setup since art was being displayed. After that I saw the Math Club, it caught my eye because the poster mentioned the possibility of being a Wu Warrior. I had Dr. Wu as a professor over the summer and he was great. Who wouldn’t want to be a Wu Warrior? I definitely wanted to join that club. That was the last club table I got to, and then I walked into the track meeting since it was right in that hallway.

Overall I really enjoyed the Get Involved Fair. I would like to think it has helped me get involved a lot, and even though I’m going to have trouble making it to most of the meetings. I signed up for 21 clubs, but I was disappointed that I didn’t see the Geology Club even though I went both days for the fair. The friendly faces and free candy was a very nice touch. If I had any complaints it would be about the lack of organization, or how sometimes I couldn’t see the signs for some of the clubs. The Get Involved Fair was a very useful event for students and I enjoyed it.

Bloods is racing, adrenaline is pumping, and the nervous pee is coming back. It’s now or never, get on that stage, take the mic, and sing your heart out: that’s all karaoke is really about. Monday September 16 SET hosted the first karaoke night of the year and I must say it was quite successful. It was a good turnout and the stage never lacked a star. It didn’t matter who sang, whether he or she came with a group or alone, whether he or she was good or not, whether he or she liked country or rap, the stage loved everyone. No one was booed; the audience was great and always supportive. If there are any people out there who have always wanted to make their debut and sing on stage for the first time I must recommend going to the next karaoke night. There were so many songs to choose from; from “Do the Time Warp” to “Call me Maybe”. There really is no reason for stage fright because the audience really doesn’t care since they are there to have fun not to judge.
No one is required to sing, it can be a blast just to go out and support friends and fellow classmates. People were able to enjoy the lively atmosphere just by being there since the Campus Center already provided a great variety of things to do. So people who had to wait to sing could play pool, Ping-Pong, or just hang out. It’s events like karaoke that give people the chance the express themselves and show a side of themselves no one has ever seen before. This was one of the best events SET has hosted this year so far and the year is only just starting; I look forward to the next karaoke night.

On Thursday September 26th Stockton hosted a convocation with guest speaker Mary Roach. Roach is the author of multiple science based books including Stiff and this year’s required freshmen reading, Spook. At the convocation Mary Roach discussed a wide variety of topics ranging from the disputed ending to her book, the perks of being curious, and even some interesting facts about hyenas. Roach used a combination of comedy, inspirational advice, and a wide variety of intriguing subjects to keep the audience attentive and entertained.

During the extended question and answer session Roach discussed the premise behind her book stating, “It wasn’t a book to say there’s no such thing as the afterlife.” Many readers, including fellow students, have questioned the purpose behind her book. At the convocation I believe she made it clear that her book was not about finding an answer to a seemingly unanswerable question so much as investigating the beliefs and methods of others in a simple attempt to learn more about that which we know very little. Roach claimed that she is a very curious person by nature and is constantly questioning how things work and where they come from. With this notion in mind, Spook makes more sense. After hearing her discuss her curious nature and the intent of her book, claims made by students that the book did not make sense and went off on tangents seem invalid.

In my opinion, this book was not written to prove or disprove the afterlife; however, it was simply Roach’s investigation of the methods and opinions of professionals in the field, believers and skeptics. Many people expected her to give a clear answer on whether or not she believed in the afterlife and were upset by her statement at the end of the book. At the convocation she stated, “I don’t want to be in a world with no possibility of ghosts.”  Her statement at the end of Spook reaffirms the fact that her book was written with the idea of acquiring knowledge and still choosing to believe in what makes people comfortable or happy. Overall the convocation was an informative, entertaining, and eye opening experience.

On September 7, 2013, the Campus Center Event Room was filled to the brim with students clad in black t-shirts, all clamoring for a seat at their desired service project’s table. This frenzied scene can only be Stockton’s 10th annual Day of Service. Luckily, my two friends and I had gotten there early enough to receive our desired service project helping Shore Park Tenant Association with an end-of-summer barbeque. We were going to be working with three other girls and our two project leaders.
A half hour later the army of buses were packed and set off for Atlantic City. We arrived at our destination ten minutes later and were greeted by the president of Shore Park Tenant Association. She told us a little about the residents and how many of them are disabled, elderly, or previously homeless. Shore Park provides them with housing and makes it easy for them to get around. The president also filled us in on all the events, from bingo to music nights, which Shore Park puts on for its residents. The end of summer barbeque, however is by far a crowd favorite.
We then received a tour of the main hall and garden where the barbeque would take place. After that, for the first hour or so, it seemed as if the organization didn’t need our help cooking, grilling ribs, or doing any heavy grunt work. My group and I stood at ease, ready to jump and seize any opportunity to help, even with small things like rolling utensils or moving a table.
When the food came out, it was definitely a sight to behold. With hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, fresh crabs, corn on the cob, ribs, salad, and a plethora of cakes, there was enough food to feed an army. Our job was to help serve all of it, and I got put on crab duty.
Immediately after the residents started to trickle into the hall, our idleness was no more. Each one of us was busy serving food and helping residents, especially those who were disabled, receive the food they wanted. As the person in charge of the crabs, I was to take exactly four freshly cooked crabs out of a wooden barrel, wrap them in newspaper, and dole them out to whoever wanted them, which was almost everyone. Many people were eager to make sure I gave them the right amount of crabs, especially the legs.
All of the residents were extremely grateful for our help and of course the free food. They could not stop saying “thank you” and it was heartwarming to see the smiles on their faces. Even though I clearly smelt of crabs the rest of the day, I enjoyed my time there and realized that the day was not just about serving food, but making people feel loved and cared about. Though I wish we could have done more to help at first, my first Day of Service at Stockton was a memorable and enlightening experience; it is definitely something I would participate in again.